Teachers and Books: I was watching Dave Letterman years ago when he was still Late Night, and he was going a bit called Library, or new books, or something like that. He stood in front of a small bookcase and held up one that he said was the latest from Stephen King, called “Why Don’t We Make a Movie out of This.”
I’ve noticed something odd, but my sample size is too low to be reliable. Our grandson in high school was assigned two books that I was aware of, and more of course. One was The Great Gatsby, and the other One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. At our fiftieth class reunion I spoke with a former classmate who became a teacher …. I mean … educator. At one point she said “I taught One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” to one of her high school classes. Perhaps in her teaching she got wind of the underlying reality, that the kids were merely watching the movie?
I don’t know how prevalent this practice is, but I wonder if the teachers, I mean, educators, in these classes are aware that the assigned reading are books that were made into easily accessible movies. And that most of the kids, and perhaps the teachers, I mean educators, have not read the material but rather just watched the video. That’s what I would do if I were in school these days. In fact, in a time when media was far less omnipresent, I remember being with several other students taking a Freshman college class, and we were busy listening to King Lear on a 78 rpm record. There was a test the following day. I’m pretty sure I absorbed none of it. Maybe, if it was a movie, if we had a projector, and could sit back and effortlessly absorb it, I would have done better on the test?
My point is that I am pretty sure that the teachers know the kids are merely watching movies of assigned reading, and are OK with it, as the material, one way or another, gets absorbed, and they get to use that fact and resulting good test scores to carry on in their profession of teaching … I mean … educating.
Kaufman Cowen: CK? This is a repeat of a post from a few years back, but what the hell, I do that. I refer to the epigram based on translation by an English student at Oxford in 1680 (so I am told by Wikipedia):
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,
The reason why – I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell.
People were known to use this brief verse against Nixon, which is where I first heard it. I was so young when Nixon was president and my opinions so poorly formed, but even then I thought it clever. It’s a way of saying that there is something about a person that I do not trust. In that spirit, I do not trust Anthony Fauci, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Donald Trump, Barack Obama or AOC, not because they are high profile public officials, but rather because there is some undefinable quality about them that makes me feel queasy. Perhaps it has something to do with their being marketed to us like Tide detergent. I think they are not genuine, and are carrying out script written for them in exchange for their fame.
In the same manner, back in 2020 we became aware of two men to quickly rose to prominence with the Covid epidemic, Andrew Kaufman and Tom Cowan. I fell for each of them and as quickly backed away from each, the reason why I cannot tell. With Kaufman, it was just a feeling that he was not genuine. I was watching one of his videos one day, a long time ago as he was bald at the time, and over his left shoulder in a distant hallway appeared a kid, maybe 11 or 12, who stopped, looked in the room, and then vanished. OK, that’s perfectly normal! And yet, it did not feel right. Kaufman was said to be a divorcee, a former psychiatrist who lost his job due to refusal to wear a mask, and that was meant to appeal to us. A divorced dad too? Perfectly normal, and yet it left me cold. I thought we were meant to see that kid as part of the marketing campaign for Kaufman.
Cowan seemed more genuine, and yet he appeared simultaneously with Kaufman, and they quickly became go-to’s. The people who back our public figures of trust, the Obama’s and RFK Jrs., know how to market, and how to reach us, and how to influence us. Before we knew it, if there was a gathering with speakers, or a video presentation about the pandemic, Kaufman and Cowan featured prominently. As Lenin is said to have said, “The best way to control the opposition is to lead them ourselves.” That’s a fake quote, of course, as is the Mark Twain one atop this blog, which I cannot get rid of. But the point is that C&K became leaders of the anti-pandemic outliers by default, and I do not trust that they happened organically.
OK, something else … C is the 3rd, K the 11th letter of the alphabet. 3×11=33. Is that a weird thing to say? No more than the Ku Klux Klan being an intelligence front with KKK=33. It’s the product of an overactive mind, mine, of course, but also a message to insiders that “we control these guys too.” My final straw on Kaufman was this:
On the left, CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden, on the right, Kaufman. They are NOT the same person, but their facial features line up in a way that no others do. And my oh my, have you ever seen such cold malevolent eyes?
With Matt Damon, Charlie Sheen, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Affleck, I call them “Bokanovsky Brats” after the process used in Huxley’s Brave New World. In that book they manufactured people, as many as 96 from one fertilized egg, but only for lowly occupations, not actors, not leadership. Is that what these two are engaged in? We have noticed here on this blog a large number of Brats. I’ve been told that it really nothing more than the golden ratio that is unconsciously used in selection of movie stars. I do not believe it. I’ve never in my life met two people who look alike, not siblings, cousins, parents/children. Even identical twins can be distinguished from one another.
So the idea that we have uncovered maybe a hundred famous people who share the same facial plate, even though they are easily distinguished from one another, is a phenomenon that to me points to one thing only: Manufactured humans assigned at birth to wealthy prominent families.
About that Andrew Kaufman – I received notice from Tyrone McCloskey that he had suspicion that another Andy Kaufman (fake death 5/16/1984) had taken the form of California lawyer and perennial political candidate Eric Early. Here are a collage of photos I have been working with this morning, Andy Kaufman above, Eric Early below.
Upper row, far right, is Kaufman as alter ego Tony Clifton. Let’s get that one out of the way early. It’s a difficult match to make, as Clifton wore dark glasses, so I had to guess where his eye pupils bight be. It’s not certain, of course, due to that problem, but it was understood at the time of his fame that Clifton and Kaufman were one and the same. Here’s what I got:
Not much to go on there, but I am picking up same head proportions, same placement of nose, mouth, and that’s about it. No doubt I could monkey with the Clifton photo to get what I wanted out of it, as I just guessed at eye pupils, but the point is made here, that Clifton and Kaufman were most likely one and the same.
I am picking up on something with Kaufman that may have shortened his career. As a performer he caught everyone’s attention (except mine, as I never watched it) as Latka on the TV series Taxi, and then as an oddball performer who did a very nice Elvis impersonation on Johnny Carson (go here to see it), and then this, a truly original and very funny piece from Saturday Night Live:
I cannot describe it to you. You have to internalize it for yourself, and draw the humor from it on your own. It is unique. I laughed very hard when I first saw it, and still do. I’ve seen nothing else like it.
About that Kaufman something I picked up, probably most others too, was that he became …uncomfortable, if that is the word. Tony Clifton was an asshole in public. Kaufman also staged wrestling matches with Jerry Lawler, a professional, and surely a paid co-performer. They staged a fight one night on Letterman, who claimed not to know it was coming, and it seemed to get serious. It wasn’t funny. The whole of the wrestling stage of Kaufman’s comedy seemed to spell the end of his career, as like Tiny Tim on the Johnny Carson Show, he had become a gadget act, and so surely not to last.
I suspect his death was staged, and for many reasons. perhaps some having to do with his inability to last as a performer. Maybe he wanted out, maybe his agents suggested fake death, but for whatever reason, what he had could not be sustained.
Did he become Eric Early, perennial loser in California politics? It would seem appropriate. I did comparisons of all the photos above, and only one rang true to me as a match:
Please note that on the photo of both Kaufman and Early in the collage above, they show a pronounced mole on the left cheek, and in the same place. Not on this one, not present in Early on the right. But on the others, it is an indicator that we are on to something here, an arrow pointing in that direction, but not conclusive. The above photo is the best match I got, but the others were not so good. I can only say that I suspect these are the same man in different eras, but the evidence I give, well, you’re looking at it.
What ever became of Malcolm X? Should we ask Sam Cooke? One of our commenters here wanted it know whatever became of Sam Cooke, a very popular singer from the 50s/60s. He died in a hotel fight in 1964, drunk and consorting with a girl he’s forcibly brought with him to his room. That’s the official story, anyway. He was 33 at the time. Of course it was fake! Over the years I’ve searched for Cooke alive, but had no success. So a few days ago I ran him against Morgan Freeman, a definite no-go, and CBS news reporter Ed Bradley, ditto. Then I tried a guy with whom I spotted a faint resemblance, Malcom X, the civil rights agitator who was shot to death in 1965.
Here’s a collage of the two men, Malcolm on top, Cooke below:
Problems abounded. For one, Cooke, though the subject of hundreds of photographs (he did have 30 top-40 hits in his career), seldom appeared in a natural setting. Paparazzi were not around then. So all of his photos were of studio quality, and always with a wide smile. Malcom X, on the other hand, was a more serious subject, and most of his poses were news photos of him giving speeches, and at odd angles. I did find two photos that showed a strong match:
That is but one comparison of many that I did with the above collage, and the only one that worked to a satisfying degree.
One problem, the ears, which do not match. Then, there were timeline problems. Cooke was born, allegedly, on 1/22/1931, and was shot to death on 12/11/1964 at age 33. Malcolm X (real name Little) was born on 5/19/1925, and was shot to death on 2/21/1965, at age 39, also a spook marker but a less common one with celebrity deaths. So there was only five months between their deaths. That is not enough time for one to impersonate the other, and further, they each had public lives that ran parallel, each well known in their separate milieus. They knew each other, were said to be friends. Cooke was hospitalized after a car crash in 1958, but I don’t think it was long enough for him to step out of his shoes and become someone else.
Here’s what I think: Both Cooke and Malcolm X faked their deaths. Each of them might have transitioned to another career, and I’ve more work to do in that regard. But I do not think that Cooke and Malcolm were ever in either’s shoes. I think the above photo is not representative of the overall result of the batch of photos I compared.
More work to do. Other names have been suggested, such as Louis Farrakhan (now 93) and Denzel Washington (now 71). Farrakhan would be my focus, as he was born around the time of Malcolm and Sam. Denzel is too young to mix with that crowd. We’ll see.
Piece of Mindful 